


Everything Has Changed

by artemismoon12



Category: CPCoulter's Dalton
Genre: Easter, Gen, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 11:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10661763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemismoon12/pseuds/artemismoon12
Summary: When he was a kid, no older than four, Dwight went to church.





	Everything Has Changed

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I wrote partially at work while on a slight break before the hordes descended the Saturday of the Easter Weekend. It's sort of my excuse as a Catholic on why I didn't go to church- I sent Dwight there instead!   
> So I hope you all had a good Easter Weekend, and god bless!

When he was a kid, no older than four, Dwight went to church.

 

As a matter of speaking he still goes to church, but it’s not the same.

 

His mother would hold his hand. His aunt (her cousin) would bring all her son Lucas, and they’d both be told not to get chocolate on their nice Sunday clothes. His Uncles would pick him and tell him how nice he looked, how grown up. The priest would welcome them all as they sat down, and his father would pull him close to him and translate all the big words into speak for a little one.

 

The three of them would stand and sing the refrain. Dwight was too little to repeat the words and know what they meant. He did though. His mother would whisper how good a job he did. His father would pass him the envelope with the cheque for the collection plate. He didn’t know how many dollars it was for- he bet it was more than five. His dad was really rich, he knew it had to be a big amount.

 

After mass the congregation had a huge picnic. Lucas would yell and scream, holding a basket full of eggs he’d already found before mass and hidden all over again. He’d show it off to Aunt Aggie and then tug Dwight over to find more. The two of them would then climb under the table with all the tea in silver teapots, and coffee in French presses they had donated from old estates, and hide and smear their faces with chocolate.

 

Dwight didn’t know too much about ghosts or demons or ghouls yet- but he knew Jesus had come back to life today. And he did it every year. It was a miracle- but he did it for them, so they could all live. And he thought that was pretty cool.

 

Lucas and Dwight sat under the table with pink and green eggshells, and chocolate stained fingers until their mothers found them and hugged them. And their uncles laughed and told them how adventurous they had been. Easter was a good day.

 

When he was older they went to church. Dwight and Alan, Dwight holding his brother’s hand and reminding him of all the things they needed to do. How they had to cross their arms for the blessing because they hadn’t had confirmation yet, or how they couldn’t stay seated even if their feet hurt when the hallelujah came.

 

Lucas had it worse. His mother was holding baby Kelly and he had to be good for the both of them. Dwight was glad Alan wasn’t a baby anymore, he was easier to protect now that he could run alongside him. The two of them had their wands in their pockets, the latest Harry Potter book still fresh in their mind. Their mother had said the priest probably wouldn’t like mentions of witchcraft in mass, but couldn’t stop them when they put their minds to it.

 

The glass pendant around Alan’s neck slipped out of his grey blazer. They were both kneeling to say prayers after communion. Father noticed it and coughed. Mother didn’t, her eyes were shut in devotion. Dwight was the one who stuffed it back into his brother’s jacket, whispering that normal people couldn’t know how much danger they were in really. It was up to them to be heros but seek no recognition.

 

Alan asked if it was like how Jesus did all that good stuff but he never wanted to be famous. He paused. But they killed him for it, Alan added.

 

Dwight frowned and thought about it. Maybe it was, but then he came back. They were normal people, they shouldn’t get to come back. That’s why it matters so much to do good things now, because it’s the only way to get into heaven.

 

Their father caught them talking and coughed again. Uncle Ford just chuckled from mother’s side of the pew. They were kids Perry, let them talk.

 

Outside at the picnic Lucas escaped his family and the three of them crossed the grass to find Sadie. She was in the fluffiest green and white dress they had ever seen, which they then put to work to carry all the Easter treats they found in the bushes. It was almost all green by the time they finished- all four of them covered in grass stains and Sadie carrying her skirt so full of candy it was like a pillowcase on Halloween.

 

Lucas tried to bring more than his share back; his excuse was that it was for Kelly. Alan was the one who pointed out she was smaller than him and didn’t need another Lucas sized portion. But it was Sadie who announced she would get all the chocolate because it was in her skirt and she had farted so therefore it was hers. It didn’t have the intended effect because the priest was passing by and gave her a lecture about selfishness, modesty, and the importance of sharing with others.

 

The Moores were invited back to the Perry’s for Easter dinner, and they got to play dragons and monsters while the adults talked about business. But Kelly started crying and they had to all leave. Alan smiles that he had snuck the rest of the chocolate into his room, ad Dwight picked him up into a hug. Truly a pickpocketing genius!

 

Years past- and Easter wasn’t as fun. Lucas got more siblings, and it seemed like his mother was trying to balance out their side of the family when Agatha had to change her name back to Houston. Dwight sat alone in the pew after mass, without father or brother and a mother who was crying to the minster that it was all her fault. After that it was Uncle Ford trying to comfort him, or Sadie with a chocolate egg or a whisper of a secret the priest would excommunicate her for. He didn’t laugh though, only thought of what the day was. What resurrection truly meant.

 

He was nineteen the next time he got to spend Easter at home. Years of boarding school didn’t lend themselves well to going home for the long weekend, not when there were papers to write, and friends who wouldn’t let you leave even if you wanted to. All there was, was a church a few miles away from school with a total of three families who attended regularly and not even enough to memorize the mass.

 

But he knew the lines, knew the words. Carried the rituals in him like a muscle memory and a mantra he couldn’t stop repeating. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

 

And he said it now. His mother at his side, his cousin at his back, his Uncle a hand span away. The family he spun scattered around the church, with a crystal tucked in her shirt and a pair of glasses to hide the way his eyes darted around the room with speculation. They sang the words in halting harmony, shook hands, and lifted their hands in a line to receive a wafer representative of more than they were themselves. Together.

 

The picnic was different. Them taller, older, wiser, but still so young and hopeful. While Dwight felt a phantom limb, a hand waiting to hold his, he still smiled when Sadie barrelled into him with a hug. When Lucas pressed a cup of tea from the silver pot on the table into his hand, he accepted it and watched the children from parents who got older and older each year hunt for colourful treats like a horde. Morgan pointed out how they didn’t even wait for the whistle, they just ran.

 

He felt his mother’s presence behind him, and the group smiled to greet her. All in grey, like the half mourning wear she seemed to sport unintentionally, she craned her neck up to tell him it was time to go. They’d see one another tonight at the country club fundraiser: a lamb dinner at $400 a plate for the newest charity on the block.

 

She was not the same as when he was a child. She was sadder, but somehow freer with her touches. His mother kissed Sadie in the Italian way, telling her how beautiful she’d become since going away to school. Sadie smiled and told her she was too kind. She patted Lucas on the arm, and told Morgan he better not be late with a sweet smile- both quick to assure her they’d be there, since Lucas was in charge of the kids tonight.  

 

Things had changed. They’d almost lost him too many times- but it wasn’t a death, it was a fall up the hill. Carrying the cross the priests called it; but around these people it was like the burden was lifted, they shared that grief and that worry and that pain that had once felt so fresh, but now throbbed in the background like a fading bruise.

 

It wasn’t chocolate and rabbits, but it was still sweet. It was home.

 

(Happy Easter)


End file.
